In 1651 the civil war ended. In 1658 Oliver Cromwell died, and a military coup d'etat placed Charles II on the throne. Never since that day has a British Parliament legis lated for the army with a knowledge of war born of experience. A generation grew up which had forgotten the lessons of Marston Moor and Worcester. The reaction was prompt, and its effect far reaching. The---a soon betame to be regarded as an evil, scarcely a necessary evil. The soldier soon learnt that the utmost he could expect was toleration. The accession of a foreign king surrounded by Dutch guards increased that antipathy to the army, which for the next two centuries marked the proceedings of Parliament. In 1689 was passed the first Mutiny Act. The primary ob ject of the act was to confer upon the sovereign the right to punish certain military offences not dealt with by the ordinary law; but the act contained a section of a totally different pur port. The words which have become famous run as follows: "The raising or keeping of a standing army within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in time of peace, un less it be with the consent of Parliament, is against law? The law as passed in the time of King William III is to this day solemnly re-enacted every year by Parliament, and the illegality of maintaining a standing army is palliated by a special Act of Dispensation for one year only. This annual performance has become a mean ingless anachronism. The necessity for main taining a standing army in time of peace is no longer questioned or questionable, and the army itself has long ceased to be the instru ment of a sovereign, and has become the ser vant of the nation. But the original passage of the act and its renewal by many succeeding Parliaments is typical of the tone and temper of the Legislature toward an institution which is as essential to the safety and welfare of the state as Parliament itself.
The result of this want of sympathy between Parliament and the army is very noticeable. The favor of the Legislature, and the funds which that favor can alone provide, have been available during periods of crisis and national danger: They have been grudgingly given or withheld in those intervals of peace which ought also to be intervals of preparation. As a result there has been an absence of continu ity, and of deliberate adaptation of means to ends, which has greatly interfered with the proper development of the military power of Great Britain, and have provided her with mili tary institutions which bear upon them the un mistakable evidence of their having been cre ated at haphazard, altered to meet political rather than military exigencies, and adapted to meet a single emergency rather than to deal scientifically with the work of a world-wide empire.
Under these circumstances the services which the regular army of Britain has ren dered are indeed a marvel. In every land and under every sky, against the highly trained armies of Europe, against the half disciplined hosts of Oriental princes, against savage tribes, formidable by reason of their fanaticism, cour age and numbers, the regular army of Britain has fought with varying fortunes but with never failing tenacity and devotion. There is no soil
which does not cover the grave of the British soldier. In the broad valley of the Danube, on the plains of Belgium, on the shores of the Black Sea, in the passes of Spain, among the vineyards of France they are to be found. The "Redcoats" have fought and died on the plains of India, under the walls of the imperial cities of China; on the heights of the Saint Law rence; in the valley of the Hudson; under the ramparts of New Orleans; in South American cities; before the stockades of the Maori in New Zealand and in innumerable islands in every sea. On the great African Continent, North and South, East and West, from the Pyramids to Table Mountain; from the blazing shores of the Red Sea, to the swamps of the Gold Coast and the Niger, they have obeyed orders, and laid down their lives for "the safety, honor and welfare of their Sovereivn and his Dominions?' But they have not died in vain. If it be true that the tap of the British druni follows the rising sun round the world, it is true also that the planting of the British flag i in five continents is largely due to the patient heroism of the British soldier. Rarely com manded by generals of exceptional genius; al most invariably suffering from the apathy and neglect of Parliament in peace time, and from the faulty administration in war which is the certain result of neglect in time of peace, the British soldier by dint of certain great qualities which he possesses has held his own. To the regimental officers and to the non-commis sioned officers credit is above all due. They have been, and still are, the true strength of the British army.
What is the nature of this army which has suffered and accomplished so much? In its character and composition it is as unique as the circumstances which have created it. There may be better armies than the British, there are un doubtedly worse armies, but there is no army like it. It shares with the army of the United States the peculiarity of being recruited by vol untary enlistment and not by compulsion in any form. It has a further peculiarity which, until recent foreign conquests planted the Stars and Stripes in the China Seas, distinguished it even from the army of the United States. Nearly half of the Regular Army of Britain is main tained on a war footing in time of peace, is maintained in distant lands, and to a large ex tent in tropical or sub-tropical countries. The population of India is over 315,000,000 and the military force which defends the great Penin sula and keeps the peace from Quetta to Cape Camorin amounts to 239,730 all told. Of these 75,895 are British soldiers enlisted within the United Kingdom; the remainder are the troops of the Indian army, 161,085 natives commanded by 2,751 officers, of which the superior officers are British. There are also "Imperial troops raised by native states and held at the disposal of the government; they number about 20,000, including a strong force of cavalry; 36,000 reserves of the native army, and close on 40,000 white volunteers, besides 3,000 re servists.